


swimming in teal

by PerfectSilence (hitomishiga)



Category: Love Live! School Idol Festival (Video Game), Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Alternate Universe - Magic, F/F, Fluff and Hurt/Comfort, Gen, aroace!honoka and aro!rin, ft. angry not-javert maki in the bg, n girls included as a complimentary package, platonic/qp rinpanas, slow burn relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-09
Updated: 2015-12-09
Packaged: 2018-05-05 20:21:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5388980
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hitomishiga/pseuds/PerfectSilence
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>'call me~’ read the note, and Eli nearly dropped it like it was on fire, except that her fingers had frozen over in the joints and locked up, forcing her eyes to read the string of numbers underneath. The whole thing was prefixed with a little love heart, and underneath was a combination of X’s and O’s. She had no idea what that meant but she was pretty sure she just got Toujou Nozomi’s number and maybe this counted as flirting so maybe Nozomi was, also, kind of gay and she had a chance.</p>
<p>(Eli is Very Gay, Nozomi is a witch, and everyone else is kind of dragged into their antics somehow)</p>
            </blockquote>





	swimming in teal

**Author's Note:**

> hit me up on tumblr, bc this modern magic au has taken over my life (no it's not related to silversheath's au that's a coincidence)

Right on time, Eli thought as the bell rung, and the door creaked as someone entered the shop. 8:46. A bit earlier than usual, but nonetheless expected. They shared a glance and a nod, Eli crunching her hands together underneath the counter, and the other woman smirking knowingly. As it was every Sunday morning.

The woman’s deep purple hair and bright turquoise eyes looked right at home amongst the tulips and hydrangea and lilacs and chrysanthemums. Her carefully delicate, deft fingers brushed across every individual plant so softly, caressing each as if addressing real, living things instead of plants.

Well, plants were living, but you get the point.

It was a confusing ritual but Eli watched in fascination. It wasn’t like there were any other customers to entertain. She couldn’t feign indifference. That would be rude. Okay, maybe staring was also sort of rude but sometimes a girl can’t help it.

It was still the busy time of morning, and Eli fervently hoped someone, anyone, would walk in right now to ease her of her gay suffering and actually give her something to do. Alas, the universe which always seemed to snub her didn’t let her down, and nobody walked in, leaving her and the purple-haired stranger alone, in a flower shop, and even though she was facing away Eli was so sure she knew, she knew Eli was watching her.

Damn, Eli cursed, but inwardly, trying to resist the urge to tap her fingers against the counter. Was she really that impatient for the woman to approach and - Gosh forbid - start a conversation? No, she wasn’t that starved for conversation. Hanayo was right next door, anytime she wanted that.

I’m really gay, she thought, a real homegrown lesbian.

“Do you need any help, miss?” Eli called out from her seat, hoping nobody caught the hoarseness of her voice from not having spoken a word this cold autumn morning. Or nerves.

The woman looked up from a peculiar pot of mint. “Who, me?” She asked, and Eli was sure she was feigning confusion. They were literally the only ones in the shop. “No, thank you, I know what I’m after. Thanks for offering, though.”

And she smiled and giggled, just softly enough for Eli to notice, who pressed her lips together. Nodded. She wasn’t normally this uncool and unclever and unsmooth. Was she?

Lucky there was no clock in here other than the digital watch Eli kept on the counter for convenience, or else the ticking might have driven her mad as she waited. After an eternity, the woman finally decided she’d found what she was looking for and strutted towards the counter and suddenly Eli was finding it hard to swallow. Her tongue felt thick in her mouth and she knew if she opened it she’d say something stupid like last time.

“Just this one, please,” said the woman as she placed a few stems of foxglove down without breaking eye contact. Or at least, that’s what Eli thought, since she was too busy looking at the plant in shame, and confusion.

“You do realise this is-”

“Yeah, I know,” said the woman, “don’t ingest it or inhale it. It’s very nice of you to have this in stock at the moment, considering all that controversy over the Berlin witches.”

Ah, Eli thought, she’s one of those types. The witch-sympathisers. Eli wasn’t exactly up-to-date with the latest global magical gossip, being Mundane herself, and extremely so. A Mundane with a family of Mundanes… it seemed like this normal sort of family was becoming rarer nowadays with practically every person you met being involved in witchcraft somehow.

A small handful of bills followed the foxglove, and Eli was somewhat surprised (though in hindsight it really shouldn’t have been so surprising) to find the exact right amount. “Thanks for your continued patronage,” she said, the line she’d practiced for frequent customers that she thought she’d never have to use. It sounded way too robotic and automatic. Should she have made it more personal? Or was that crossing some sort of boundary?

“It’s no problem,” the woman squinted, “Ayase Eli?”

For a moment, Eli was flabbergasted until she remembered the homemade pin with her name, "Ayase Eli, manager", handwritten on the front. Suddenly it felt a rather childish and immature decision, to give herself a name tag as if this was some high-end chain store or something, instead of a struggling little flower shop. She knew she was flushing and coughed behind her hand in a vain but valiant attempt to disguise it.

“Y- you can call me Eli,” she insisted boldly, instantly regretting her choice of words and the fact that she couldn’t just sink into the ground right then and there. The woman was speechless, probably in shock. Probably because she thought Eli was a weirdo now, and never wanted to speak with her again, and now she’d lose her only consistent customer.

But, the woman smiled, and Eli noticed the most adorable dimple on her left cheek. “If you say so, Eli… Eli-san.” Ah, so there were still some reservations. Eli chewed the inside of her lip and wrapped up the foxglove so that she wouldn’t be expected to say anything or look this woman in the eye - this stranger, despite Eli already acting like they were friends.

“Toujou Nozomi. You can call me Nozomi,” she said as Eli made the mistake of looking up to finish the transaction. Crap. Now they knew each others names. What did that mean?

“O- ok…” Eli swallowed. Hard. “… Nozomi.”

She’d never seen someone’s eyes smile so much without trying until then. She was positive she was going to die of asphyxiation before she so much as even got Nozomi’s number, and adrenaline was coursing through her body more than any stage performance. Should she be standing? No, stay cool, she told herself, stay cool and fresh. Stay in your seat like an ordinary human being.

The bell tinkled again, jolting Eli out of her nervous breakdown with a relieved sigh that was possibly too audible, but her prayers had not been answered. Rather, it seemed the universe was very intent on playing with her emotions right now - in the open doorway, surrounded by the exterior light, was officer Nishikino, red hair as perfectly almost-tamed as ever, violet eyes piercing like a hawk’s. Her stance basically screamed official-business-do-not-touch, and every echoing step drove a nail under Eli’s skin.

The door slowly swung close with a creak. Looking at Nozomi’s face, despite still having her back to the door, there was the slightest grimace on her face as if she was steeling herself for the encounter.

As Nishikino strode closer, confidence oozing from her every particle, Eli wondered just what she had done to garner this sort of attention - and from the Magic Council, no less! Eli had never in her whole life dealt with anything magic-y or witch-y. Then she realised she was not, in fact, the target of Nishikino’s ire and was simultaneously relieved and worried to think that it was, instead, Nozomi. 

“Toujou-san!” She said, her voice full of authority, or maybe it was simply the shiny gold badge she wore on the lapel of her uniform, “you’ve been avoiding me.”

Nozomi, still turned towards Eli and away from Nishikino, raised her eyebrows and placed a hand on her collarbone.

“Me? What on earth makes you think that, officer?”

Officer Nishikino stood very quiet for a very long moment, and Eli had the sudden thought that, maybe, she hadn’t really planned this encounter through and was trying to ad lib as she went along. The thought made her look less terrifying and more foolish.

That still didn’t mean she wasn’t intimidating as hell, though.

“Look,” Nishikino said, “it doesn’t really matter. The point is, I’ve finally got you pinned down, and the Council has been on your tail for a long time.”

“Really? I didn’t even notice!”

“Are you suggesting our incompetence?!” Nishikino raised her voice, and suddenly Eli felt very cold, and one of her feet went numb, which, she thought, was a very strange reaction. Nozomi seemed a bit taken aback, too, as if she’d suddenly taken a hit. However, the officer was undeterred. “You know the legalities of the system - you and that coven of yours! Gah, if I could get my hands on you-”

“Nishikino-san,” Nozomi said, as she turned around, and Eli caught a glimpse of the most serious look she’d ever seen on Nozomi before, “you’re never going to find us, so please, for your own sake, just focus on your job. A few unregistered witches never did any harm, did they?”

If the air was cold before, now it was absolutely frigid. Nishikino, eyes narrowed dangerously, took three agonisingly slow steps until she was face to face with Nozomi, who was perhaps the shorter of the two. Her hands balled by her sides, by her gun, and for a fleeting moment, Eli was absolutely convinced a fight was going to break out.

Also, Nozomi was a witch? How had she never picked that out before?

Nishikino growled, but otherwise, nothing else happened. “An unregistered witch, an unregistered coven, an unregistered circle… you have absolutely no idea what we are dealing with, here. It is order and assimilate, or chaos and segregation. You witches are always so… difficult! I hope I won’t have to see you again, Toujou, but if I do-!”

And with that, Nishikino stormed out of the building, not even giving the bell enough time to ring before she was out of sight. Eli honestly couldn’t decide whether that was the most unexpectedly scary moment of her life, or whether to laugh at Nishikino’s childish threat.

“That… sure was something, huh.” she said, to break the awkward silence. It was only when Nozomi reached for her flowers that Eli realised Nozomi’s hands were shaking, as well. Not the paragon of confidence after all, was she?

“Oh, she’s all empty threats.” said Nozomi, with a tired sigh. “Mostly. Oh, the flower’s…”

In Nozomi’s hand, the flower had wilted and shrivelled. Weird.

Eli stood up in such a rush that the chair screamed in protest against the boards. “I’ll get you another, free of charge, just wait here. It’s, uh, in the back.” Or the attic, actually, but anyway.

Suddenly full of energy, strangely enough, after feeling so oddly lethargic earlier, Eli bounded through the back and up the stairs, glad for the distraction to hide her overwhelmingly contrasting emotions. Was ‘Feeling Gay’ an emotion? Because she was definitely still feeling it, even with officer Nishikino there to break the mood a little. (Was she always such a mood killer?)

She found what she was looking for easily enough, despite her organisation in the attic being of a somewhat poorer standard than downstairs, and everything out of any sort of order, but it was ok since nobody was there to see it anyway. Foxglove, five pieces, though she threw in the rest of the bunch as compensation, not bribery.

Back downstairs, Nozomi suddenly snapped back upright from something suspicious. Ignoring it, Eli presented the flowers with a tiny mock bow. “Here,” she ushered them towards Nozomi. That was Really Bad. Crap.

“Thanks,” Nozomi took it with a restrained little giggle, and Eli deflated in relief. “Oh? Why, there’s a lot more-”

“On the house,” Eli said, “as, uh, compensation.”

Nozomi looked between her flowers and Eli and it made her heart flutter worryingly. Like, seriously worryingly. She thought she was going to throw up. As in, throw up her heart right out of her chest. Maybe it was just the ongoing nerves from before. Yeah.

“Thank you very much, Eli-s - hm, Eli.”

Heavenly.

“No problem at all!” Eli insisted, throwing up her hands, “thank you very much for coming around every other day.”

Nozomi nodded, and began to back away - slowly, at first, as if she wanted to keep eye contact, but then she did turn, and opened the door. Eli had the sudden thought to ask what sort of witch she was, but Nozomi had already left into the thinning crowd on the street outside, and Eli was alone again with the bell’s dying laughter.

Sinking back into her chair, Eli let out a superhuman sigh. Today had been a big day, and it was barely an hour into it.

Something caught her eye on the desk. A slip of paper. Had Nozomi left something behind?

'call me~’ read the note, and Eli nearly dropped it like it was on fire, except that her fingers had frozen over in the joints and locked up, forcing her eyes to read the string of numbers underneath. The whole thing was prefixed with a little love heart, and underneath was a combination of X’s and O’s. She had no idea what that meant but she was pretty sure she just got Toujou Nozomi’s number and maybe this counted as flirting so maybe Nozomi was, also, kind of gay and she had a chance.

“Wait until Hanayo hears about this,” she muttered under her breath, pocketing the note inside her jacket, and not even officer Nishikino could have taken away the joy welling up inside her chest and overflowing into her stupid grin.


End file.
